Three Wildcats finished with more than 10 kills on the night, including a match-high 17 from Nataly Korobkova. The Russian native added one service ace, six digs and five block assists. Rita Liliom had 16 kills with five digs. Jenny Jantsch finished with a season-high 14 kills on .220 hitting.
Stacey Spiegelberg dished out 50 assists to aid in the .185 Wildcat attack. The Overland Park native also added two service aces, six digs and eight block assists.
Kelsey Chipman finished with 12 blocks on the night (one solo, 11 assisted) and also notched nine kills and one service ace. Angie Lastra had her 24th career match of 20 or more digs as she registered 23 against the A&M.
K-State played the tale of two games in the first two sets, as the Wildcat attack finished with .024 in the first game and .265 in the second. The Aggies took control in the first with a hitting percentage of .267, but slipped to .091 in the second set. Chipman and Liliom led the Cats through the first with four and three kills, respectively, while Farr and Spiegelberg each tallied three block assists. Jantsch and Liliom paced the KSU attack through the second game win, 30-24, with six kills each.
In the third game, K-State sat in a two-point lead at 9-7 before the Aggies went on an 8-1 run to lead 15-10. After a KSU timeout, the Wildcats were able to earn a tie at 18-all with points from five Texas A&M errors.
A service ace from Lastra gave the Cats their first lead since 9-8 with a 20-19 score. At a 23-point tie, the Aggies had four unanswered points to lead at 27-23. K-State, looking for the 2-1 match lead, finished the game with seven straight points, including two Spiegelberg aces, to win the third 30-27.
Contributions from Korobkova gave the Cats a 10-7 lead in the fourth game before the Aggies called a timeout. A 4-1 run with two blocks and one kill from Chipman allowed K-State to earn a 14-8 lead before A&M pulled within three with three-straight points. After two K-State timeouts, the Aggies sat one point back from the Wildcats at 18-17 before costly errors allowed K-State to gain a five-point advantage at 26-21.
The Wildcats will again play on the road Wednesday when they meet No. 1 Nebraska in Lincoln at 7 p.m.
